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tv   Hardball With Chris Matthews  MSNBC  August 18, 2010 5:00pm-6:00pm EDT

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country. it's a screw job but what are we going to do? i'm dylan ratigan. "hardball" is up now. president obama says he has no regrets. let's play "hardball." good evening. from new york i'm lawrence o'donnell in for chris matthews. leading off tonight, the prospects for democrats in november just got dimmer. charlie cook of the cook political report has adjusted his house forecast for the mid-terms, and it's not good news for democrats. charlie's predicting a republican net gain, between 35 and 45 seats, with exactly 39 pickups needed for republicans to take control. we'll hear from charlie cook at top of the show. plus, glenn beck and sarah palin are planning a big rally on the steps of the lincoln memorial
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later this month 47 years to the day after the reverend martin luther king delivered his "i have a dream" speech in the same spot. many civil rights leaders are not happy about it. the reverend al sharpton will tell us why. then, one day after rod blagojevich was convicted on only one of 24 charges against him, we're learning more about what the jury was thinking, and it nearly turned out very differently for blago. and damage control. white house chief of staff rahm emanuel has spent three days on the phone trying to quell the anger from democrats who say they were blindsided when president obama weighed in on the mosque near ground zero. we'll get the latest intrigue from inside the west wing of the white house. and finally, what does nevada's senate candidate sharron angle have in common with george washington, thomas jefferson and ben franklin? you'll find that out in the
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sideshow. let's begin with charlie cook of the cook political report and chris cillizza of "the washington post." here's the situation in the house, charlie. with 76 days to go, the democratic majority is currently at 255 were 178 and a vacant seat on each side. the republicans need a pickup of 39 seats to be in control. the newest projection from charlie cook and his team, the republicans will gain 35 to 45 seats. charlie, i'm just baffled at how you do it. with hundreds of congressional districts out there, first of all, how many do you have to analyze to get to this, because a certain amount of them are just -- just off the map, and there's nothing to think about. we already know the outcome. how many do you have to analyze to get down to the zone that's in play? >> well, that's exactly the point, and that's why we look at -- you start off with a pool of 150 or so districts that could potentially become
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competitive, and, you know, you winnow and sift them down. you're looking at the candidates. we meet with the candidates. we talk to their campaigns. we're looking at the polling data and individual races. chris used to work with us. we've got david wasserman, our house editor now, and what we do is we're looking -- you know, we can let the macro, the national dynamics kind of flag what kind of year it's going to be, but then you bear down. you bore down on the individual districts, and what we've found is there are more and more districts that look safe for democrats, say six or eight months ago that started looking shaky, and now we're seeing hard data where the democrats are running -- you know, democrat incumbents are running even or even five or ten points behind. we generally don't move them into the toss-up column until we see hard data, and we've had ten races in the last week that we've moved from safer categories into either lean democrat or into tossup on the basis of hard data, so this isn't just licking your finger
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and sticking it up in the air. we've perfected this over 26 years, and -- and have gotten pretty good at it. >> chris, just give us an objective outsider's look now at how the cook report is greeted in washington. when it comes out with this kind of news, do both parties take it seriously? do they look at their own data, or is charlie's report studied so closely because it's the only one in town? >> well, first of all, let me say i'm biased because as charlie mentioned everything i know about politics literally i learned from charlie and amy walter and jennifer did you have who were interest when i was interest. charlie and stu rothenberg are the two political handicaps in this town. i will tell you for a fact 20-plus people e-mailed me, immediately e-mailed me with the 35 to 45 prediction from the cook report. it absolutely, absolutely sets sort of the line in a way, lawrence, when people are seeing it.
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when charlie and or stu say the majority is shaking, a lot of that margin is up there with the republicans faking ove i taking. they need 39 seats. if charlie moves you from lean democrat to tossup, i will tell you that the next few days for you are not good ones if you're democrat. absolute i flunksal from. my own reporting, i have a political blog. i pay very, very close attention to that stuff because i know these guys and how much time they spend with it. i know they are independents, and i know that they have been right. go back and look at their track record. go back and look at the track records. they have been right about this stuff a lot more than they have been wrong. >> what do you find is moving the numbers here? is it all local issues, or are there some larger national issues? is the noise about the mosque a factor in any of this? what's behind the movement? >> none -- the mosque doesn't have anything to do with any of this because it's happened too recently. we don't have any sort of post-mosque district level data,
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but what we're looking at, i mean, on a national level, if you're going to build a profile for where democrats are likely to lose the most seats, would you say the south, the border south, the midwest. it's districts that are more small town, rural, ex-urban, not so much urban or suburban. it's older voters. maybe a little less likely to be college educated, working class, and what we're seeing is independents who voted for democrats by an eight-point margin in 2008 by an 18-point margin in 2006, they have been citing the gallup poll going republican by a ten-point margin. it's intensity with democratic voters, lethargic and republican voters energized, and then frankly now with the campaigns are starting to engage, what you're probably going to start seeing is when you've got 100-mile-an-hour tail wind at your back, everything seems to work, and when you have that wind in your face, nothing seems to work right, and that's
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probably what -- i think that's probably what you're going to start seeing over the next months ahead. we're going with hard data of what's actually in and what we've seen so far, and it's not a pretty sight and it's a lot like what reasons cans were facing in '06. >> go ahead, chris. >> look. i was just going to say charlie talked about environmental factors. for everybody watching out there, would i point to two things. one, president obama's job approval rating and broadly, lowest 41 and highest disapproval in gallup since his presidency started. the other is the generic ballot number, the question would you support a generic republican or generic democrat in congress? we know what happened in 1994. they had a larger generic ballot lead than they do today. they are sort of mild predictors, but you look at those numbers and as charlie said you match those numbers up with raw polling data from districts and what we're hearing from committees, and it suggests that something is building out there. >> all right. the question is what can barack
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obama do about the mid-terms? let's take a look at the obama political travel map this week. he started in wisconsin this week and then he went to california, washington state, and then to ohio, and now he's in florida. charlie, what does this tell us? is this about trying to hold on to what they already have, or when he's going out to places like california, isn't he going into places that look pretty safe for the democrats? >> well, i think where the president is going is he's raising money, and it's where does the party need money? where do the party's candidates need money, and you've got washington state, for example, patty murray's in a dead-even race, and that was a -- that was a contest that we weren't even looking at so much eight or nine months ago. barbara boxner californiin cali dead even race. the governor's race in california as well. wisconsin, big governors and senate races there.
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he's going -- this is about money. it's not about politics. it's about, you know, getting as much money to help your candidates and the party insulate itself in what's almost certainly going to be a tough year. >> but the president is out there making speeches and trying to help in the mid-terms. let's listen to what president obama had to say in ohio today. >> the republicans are up there looking at us, sipping on their slurpee slurpees, you're not pushing hard enough, and then finally will we get this car up on level ground, and it's ready to finally move forward, and we feel this tap on our shoulders, and we turn around and it's those republicans. they are saying we want the keys back. when you want your car to go forward, what do you do? you put it into "d." when you want it going backwards, what do you do? you put it into "r." >> chris cillizza, he's got the republicans sipping on their
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slurpees, just watching the democrats do all the hard work the country needs. >> yeah. >> what's happening to obama rhetoric here? what about the famous speech writers he has in the white house who write those elegant speeches for him? >> well, would i say, first, let me agree with charlie on the fund-raising point, lawrence, but one thing the obama white house is hoping to get out of this. they are churning out some new lines. his rhetoric is clearly more pointed than it's been. democrats, congressional democrats, will breathe a sigh of relief. they had already said obama is not engaging this. he needs to cast this choice as a referendum but the message is still the same. the republican rhetoric and message is this is a referendum on barack obama and a democratic-led congress. the democratic message is this is a choice. do you want what we've done which may not be popular but it was necessary or what in 2006 and 2008 you rejected from republicans? traditional mid-terms suggest that it's almost always, first term mid-term suggest that the
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referendum is more likely than choice, but in truth the white house and the president have only so many ways to go here. i think they need to try to make it about republicans. that doesn't mean it's going to be successful. >> all right. let's listen to how the president continues to try to make this about republicans. this is the president on monday in wisconsin. let's listen. >> you remember when i was running, we had a little slogan, yes, we can. these guys' slogan is no, we can't. no on closing loopholes for companies that ship jobs overseas. no on the tax cuts for small businesses. no on the clean energy jobs. no on the railroad and highway projects. just this weekend the republican leader in the senate said, this is a quote from the republican leader in the senate. i wish we had been able to obstruct more, obstruct more. is that even possible?
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>> charlie cook, can the president win swing voters were that rhetoric? >> i don't think so. swing voters, they don't -- they are kind of like if you went on a cruise and you get on the ship and the gangway pulls away and you realize it's not going where you thought it was going. it's not cruise you signed up for, and independent vote remembers not happy right now. they are among the most disapproving of congress. the president's approval rating among independents is down to about 38%, 39%. independents are not happy campers, and while they don't vote quite as much in mid-term elections as president in two years, they still represent a pretty good chunk of the electorate, but what i tell my republican friends is this is a bad news/good news situation. the bad news is voters don't like you, and they haven't forgiven you. the good news is this election isn't about you. >> thank you, charlie cook and chris cillizza. >> thank you. coming up, a rally planned by conservative talk show host
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glenn beck has raised the ire of civil rights leaders. beck is holding his restoring rights rally on the anniversary of martin luther king's "i have a dream speech" on the steps of the linkion memorial, the same place dr. king gave his speech. we'll talk about it with our reverend al sharpth sharpton and our own michael skier cke samim. you're watching "hardball" only on msnbc. ton and our own mike smirkonish. you're watching "hardball" only on msnbc. ♪ [ female announcer ] this is not a prescription. this is diane. diane, who has diabetes and a daughter who could use a little perspective.
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diane, who worked with her walgreens pharmacist to keep her blood-sugar numbers in check with a few changes to her diet. ♪ diane, who's showing her daughter the world's a bit bigger than 8th grade. expertise -- find it everywhere there's a walgreens. results now from last night's primary in washington state, and keep in mind it's a unique top two state, meaning the top two finishers advance to the general regardless of party afillets. democratic incumbent senator patty murray finished first with 46% and republican deano rossi same in second with 36% and a tea party candidate backed by sarah palin finished a distant third. that means it will be a matchup between murray and rossi in november. rossi who lost two tight races for governor could be a tough
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welcome back to "hardball." ten days from now marks the 47th anniversary of the reverend martin luther king's "i have a dream" speech at the lincoln memorial. there's going to be a real that day on the steps of the lincoln memorial, and it will be led by glenn beck. here's beck talking about it on his radio show back in june. >> i'm standing at lincoln memorial on 8/28. the government is trying to now close the lincoln memorial for any kind of large gatherings. this may be the last large gathering ever to assemble at lincoln memorial. historic. historic.
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>> the reverand al sharpton is the president of the national action network and syndicated radio host. michael smirkonish is an msnbc contributor. historic, glenn beck is right about that, isn't he? >> i don't know. i don't know if it's the last gathering or not. i think that clearly that day, a day that we in the civil rights community, many of us who were too young, some not even born when the '63 march happened, we always recognize it. two years ago it was a big breakfast that i and two of dr. king's kids spoke at at the dnc convention in denver in churches. this year we'll be marching from a school in washington to where the king monument will be built. it's an historic date for us because it was the day he, dr. king, talked about his dream, a dream that a lot has been achieved and a dream that a lot has not been achieved and we'll
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be dealing with it that day in washington. i have no idea why mr. beck chose that day or that site. >> reverend sharpton, i have to ask you how did that happen and by that i mean is why didn't some other group with a real connection to dr. king have that time and that day reserved for something to commemorate dr. king's speech? >> that's a good question, but like i said, two years ago we went to denver. last year it was in churches. this year when we decided we wanted to go to dunnmore high school and march to washington, we wanted to focus on the structural inequality, the area of education, health care, jobs. there's a real problem of jobs, and we wanted to march to the monument grounds that is being built and will one day have the monument there for dr. king to show marching into the future. that was our thinking and national action network and the groups working with us, but i think you raise a good point, and i think, again, we're not reacting to beck.
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we had announced this in april. we've been organizing around that. when i found out about beck, i thought it was a very ironic choice for him to go there on that date and particularly when you look at the fact that there's some reports that one of his co-convenors is the national rifle association. that's interesting because both lincoln and dr. king were killed by gunfire so it's a very interesting choice for them, and i just hope they read dr. king's speech before they go, if they are going at all refer to the significance of that day. >> michael smikonish, before i get your reaction to what glenn beck is doing here, i want you to listen more to what he had to say about this, explaining himself in june. let's listen to what he said his intention is. >> i believe in divine providence. it was not my intention to select 8/28 because of the martin luther king tie. it is the day that he made that speech. i had no idea until i announced it and i walked off stage and my
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researchers said the "new york times" has already just published that this is martin -- and i said oh, geez. >> michael, i for one, whenever i hear glenn beck profess ignorance of something, i believe him. i believe he had no idea what that date meant. i'm willing to take that at face value, but what do you think beck should have done when he discovered that was the date? >> he should have changed it. i find myself, lawrence, for the second time in a week looking at an event time and a place, time and a place, time and a place. just because there's a right to move forward and do something doesn't mean that it's the right thing to do. a similar sound bite that i offered in this conversation about the mosque and the location in lower man hatan. i mean, i think what's unstated so far is that what sets the stage for this become a divisive day when it shouldn't be is the fact that glenn beck on one of
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his broadcasts actually on a fox news morning program regarded the president as a racist, and so it sets the stage for a very uncomfortable circumstance. he's got 364 other days in the year that he could have selected and frankly i'm surprised he didn't pick an alternative date when he learned that news. >> reverend sharpton, glenn beck says he believes in divine providence, that divine providence guided him to that place on that date. >> well, again, i would hope, and i'm a minister, i believe in divine providence. i would hope that if that is true that he reads the speech where martin luther king talked about people trying to nullify the federal government protecting people's civil rights, certainly a position that runs contrary to he and governor palin on laws like immigration, people that interpose, you know, he needs to read the speech, and i think that if he read the speech, then that in itself might be some kind of divine intervention, but
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i think that i would agree with michael here that he rather than make this day something that he claims that it's not should have chosen another day. we will not confront him. we will not be near him. we will do what we do in the civil rights community today, blacks, whites, latinos, we'll be marching together trying to deal with some of the issues today that they dealt with in 1963. he will have to deal with his own contradictions on that day. >> reverend sharpton, if glenn beck invited you to speak at that event on that day, would you accept? >> well, no, because we'll be at dunbar high school and marching to the king monument, but if i were to speak, i would read dr. king's speech, and i'm sure that it -- mr. beck, at least from what he has stated publicly in the times i've appeared with him, would disagree with most of it. if you read that speech to many of those that believe as mr. beck professes and didn't
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tell him it was martin luther king's speech, they would be totally opposed to someone talking about a strong federal government protection of civil rights, a strong emphasis on protecting the poor, a strong emphasis on non-violence, if you're part of the nra, so i think that it is interesting that on that day they may expose themselves to a lot of contradictions since they chose not to move the date if they didn't know what the date meant in the first place. >> michael, what should beck do going forward? should he move the date? should he invite someone else or invite jesse jackson, invite someone who actually does have a link to martin luther king and martin luther king's work? >> he showed some sensitivity as to what day of the week it would be because initially his indication was that he wanted it for 9/12 and then recognize that had that was going to be a sunday and didn't want to ask folks to work, quote, on the sabbath. i'm just surprise that had he didn't exercise the same level of judgment and say this is
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inappropriate now that it's been brought to my attention. it's now coming quickly. apparently months have ticked off the clock and he hasn't moved it. i still think he should move it, and lawrence, the political ramification of this is something that i'm keenly interested in. who knows what those signs will say. glenn beck can't control who show up for his rally, but you can rest assured they will get great attention in the media, and there's a potential for blow back here because i'm sure he'll have a large crowd. it will be a devoted crowd. they will be individuals who represent in many respects the core of the new face of the republican party, but there will be a lot of moderates and a lot of independents who will be watching the film footage for signs of what exactly that represents and there's the potential for individuals to get turned off by what they see. >> reverend sharpton, you've made many decisions over the years about where to have protests and what to protest and not to protest. take us inside your thinking on this. i'm sure people have considered
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in your movement whether or not they should have a physical protest on the site where glenn beck is. it sounds like you've specifically decided not to do that and to -- to be elsewhere in washington, d.c. but be elsewhere. what do you think is the -- is the right way to treat this for people who are concerned about him doing it on that date and in martin luther king's memory? >> there's been a lot of debate with the coalitions that are around this date and some people did want to confront him or protest, and we collectively decided this day is not about glenn beck. this day is not about sarah palin. it's about dr. king. it's about winning the right to vote in '65 after the '63 march. the '64 civil rights ability, celebrating how far this country has come and then challenging us to prepare ourselves to bring in to where we can close the achievement gap in education and go forward.
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to go and confront him is to make it about him. that would in my opinion and the opinion of many that are participating with us that day would mock the memory of dr. king. they are not in history for trying to confront those that were adversarial. they are in history because they moved forward despite those that were opposed to their moving forward, and i think that, again, i agree with michael, and he and i don't agree on a lot, i'm sure. let mr. beck do what he does and stand alone. he doesn't need any help from us for the country to see what he's doing, and they will see what we're doing, and we'll be talking about how we bring the country together and close the gap in education and health care and the civil rights of all americans, and what he will be representing and the people in his audience, let them judge that for themselves. we don't need to confuse the visuals by our trying to confront something. we need to be upholding what dr. king's dream was real beon that
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date. it was an important day in american history. >> a sharpton/smerconish agreement is a beautiful thing to see. let's just hope, i think we can all agree we'd like to see a much more appropriate commemoration next august 28th. >> which smerconish can come and i'll real and speech as long as i can write his speech. >> i don't think i would draw much of a crowd, reverend. you better have beck than have me. >> all right. you guys negotiate off camera. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> reverend shafrpton and michael smerconish, thank you very much for joining us today. >> thank you. up next, nevada's republican candidate for senate sharron angle has put herself in the same company as george washington, thomas jefferson and ben franklin. that's obviously in our sideshow which is next on "hardball" only on msnbc. ♪
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back to "hardball," and now the sideshow. former house leader and current tea party organizer dick armey went on "the daily show" last night. things went about as well as you'd expect. >> dick armey's axiom is divisional labor works best when people mind their own damn business. the problem with government it's just not very disciplined at minding its own business. >> wait a minute, how are you the messenger for this? you were a congressman for how many years? you were the house majority leader and then you became a lobbyist? how are you the messenger? >> isn't that a remarkable thing? >> how did you end up as the messenger of tea party no government freedom? this seems very opportunistic. >> can you imagine -- this is -- >> i think you might have filled my hat with something. how is this possible? >> this is a remarkable thing. i'm a walking, talking miracle.
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>> so, dick armey, opportunist washington hack or a walking, talking miracle? hmm. geez, i don't know. you decide. now moving on to armey's fellow traveler sharron angle, the would-be senator was asked about charges that she is too conservative to represent nevada. her answer? quote, i'm sure that they probably said that about thomas jefferson and george washington and benjamin franklin. that's why sharron angle is the walking, talking miracle who has single-handedly revived harry reid's prospects for re-election every day that she has campaigned against him. her opposition to the federal government founded by the likes of jefferson, washington and franklin and amended to include such popular programs as social security and medicare explains why senator reid's chances of re-election on intrade.com have nearly doubled since angle was
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nominated as his challenger. time now for tonight's "hardball" big number. we've got a modern day hunger strike in america. two challengers, democrat ray lutz and libertarian mike benoit, have pledged to starve themselves until republican congressman duncan hunter commits to a series of debates. as of tonight, how long have these two been on their strike? six days. now, don't mistake lutz and bemoit for truly committed hunger strikers. they have pledged to go no longer than eight days, but for now with the hunger strike still under way, six days and counting, that's tonight's big number. up next, rod blagojevich dodged 23 bullets and got hit by one, but today we learned just how close the jury came to convicting him on some of the more serious charges. that's ahead. you're watching "hardball" only on msnbc. [ male announcer ] if you have type 2 diabetes,
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i'm jane wells with your cnbc market wrap. stocks losing steam toward the close but still ending higher. the dow adding 9 ninth and the s&p 500 tacking on 1.5 points and the nasdaq 6. gm's $100 million ipo aimed at repaying bailout funds, the final figure could be much higher. analysts say gm would raise up to $20 billion in its ipo. meanwhile, are americans shopping? target shares higher after delivering quarterly earnings which met expectations boosted by gains in both apparel and its credit card businesses.
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women's apparel retailer checo a winner on better than expected profit but it wasn't all good. before j.'s skidded and underwear specialist american apparel said it may slip into bankruptcy and finally speaking of underwear, late this afternoon limited brands reported fantastic results, much better than expected. the company also owns victoria's secret. that's it from cnbc, first in business worldwide. now back to "hardball." the government threw everything but the kitchen sink at me that on every count except for one and every charge except for one they could not prove that i did anything wrong. this is a persecution. we have police officers who are being gunned down on the streets. we have children who can't play in front of their homes in the summertime because they might get gunned down and we have a prosecutor who has wasted and
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wants to spend tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer money to keep persecuting me, persecuting my family, take me away from my little girls as well as take my home away from us. >> retired illinois governor rod blagojevich after jurors found him guilty of just one count out of 24. the jury could not reach a verdict on 23 counts resulting in a mistrial. the prosecution vows a retrial. so what's next for blagojevich? carol mar season a political columnist for "the chicago sun times" and political editor at nbc station wmaq. josh gerstein writes for politico. carol, what's next? the prosecution seems eager to go? we have blagojevich saying how can you waste the money chasing me for these silly little nickel/dime offenses? >> there's going to be a retrial, lawrence, and there's going to be one very fast. the government is determined. its reputation is on the line with regard to this. and the government has gone
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after far lesser targets over the years for much fewer counts. rod blagojevich is a premium target, and they are getting ready. >> josh gerstein, the trial did not seem to go national in terms of political implications. there were no white house staff members dragged into it. some of the people from chicago easily could have been. rahm emanuel and others. so is this playing as a localized political circus in chicago, or are there national political implications for democrats and the continuation of the blagojevich story? >> well, i think on the second round there could be. i mean, there's no telling. you said that some of the white house witnesses got off the hook this time. didn't have to go and testify, even though they were on standby, and if either the prosecution or the defense changes their strategy for the second go-round in this trial, it certainly could be escalated. but, you know, it's federal court. a big factor here is there's no television cameras in the courtroom which makes it even
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harder to project it up into some kind of a national story. i also think rod blagojevich being such a flamboyant character sort of tends to make this a very personal story about him that's hard to generalize out to a political party or even politicians in general. >> carol, in a new trial, who would be more likely to call someone from the white house? would the -- the prosecutors don't seem to be interested in those witnesses? would blagojevich suddenly want to put on a defense somehow through those witnesses? >> they might, and robert blagojevich, the former governor's brother, his lawyer has said he really regrets that congressman jesse jackson jr. was not called, so i think the defense would look, if they are going to put on a formal defense, they didn't this last time, if they are, i think that valerie jarrett and rahm emanuel suddenly become much more interesting to them this time around. >> let's listen to what blagojevich's attorney sam adam jr. had to say about the
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retrial. >> we don't know what. why would a prosecutor who after ten seconds, seeroutsly, ten seconds hearing what the verdict is jump up and say no matter what we're trying this case again. you want to think about it, wouldn't you? you would want to say, look, let us sit down and reorganize our thoughts here. is this worth it, and that's what i ask the people out there. is this worth it? >> carol, what's the prosecutor's answer to that? >> the answer is yes, it is worth it. this is a prosecutor patrick fitzgerald who perhaps greatly overstated what he was prepared to show in court, but he said this was a crime spree and that lincoln was rolling over in his grave when they indicted blagojevich. they have to make good on that declaration, and that's why they have so much invested in this. >> josh gerstein, they always -- defense lawyers will always talk about, you know, how can you waste all this money on this prosecution? the fact of the matter is all those prosecutors are going to draw their regular salary
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whether they are prosecuting this case or any other case. but is there -- is there more of a necessity to push these things all the way through because politicians are involved? mean, if that were some other white collar criminal, might the prosecutors say, objection we took our best shot, go ahead? when it's a high-profile politician accused of violating the public trust, is that the kind of thing that guarantees you a retrial in mistrials like this? >> well, i think that's definitely a facto and i wouldn't say that we should say right now that it's a guarantee that there will be a retrial. the prosecutors came out and said there would be a retrial. can you imagine if they said maybe what they were going to do. there would be weeks of speculation that they would drop the case. almost became a self-fulfilling prophecy so it's very natural that the prosecutors would step in and say, of course, we'll retry this case and i wouldn't be surprised if they pare it
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down. i would be surprise federal they dropped it. every time one of blagojevich picked up a phone call they were slapped with a wire fraud charge. some of that might be exsifs and the prosecutors may decide to simplify it. even some of the jurors voting for conviction say the case was presented in a confusing fashion. >> and it was. >> go ahead, carol. >> and it was confusing and it was in the view of some jurors piling on. it was a dense, complicated case with 24 counts that were redundant in many cases, and remember this. the feds have a north of 90% conviction rate. y in take that very seriously, and are pretty indignant about the notion that they might disagree the case. i disagree with josh in terms of they might not try it. i think it's certain that they will retry it. whether they go after robert, perhaps now but rod blagojevich, i would put money on it.
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>> and they have had a dress rehearsal and can figure out how to clean it up next time. thank you both. >> thank you. >> up next, president obama says he has no regrets on weighing in on the ground zero mosque, but democrats around the country do, and the white house has had to do some damage control with democrats who say they were blindsided by the president's comments. that's next. this is "hardball" only on msnbc. oh! just come snuggle with mama. [ male announcer ] missing something? like 2 pairs of glasses for $99.99 at sears optical. now includes bifocals at the same great price for a limited time. hurry in to sears optical today and don't miss a thing.
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new york governor david paterson says the developers of that mosque near ground zero have rejected his offer to help them find a different site. the governor wanted them to try to find a site less emotionally charged than the one they are proposing to build on two blocks away from ground zero. the group says they want to stay where they are, a decision paterson says he respects. "hardball" will be right back.
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the answer is no regrets. >> welcome back to "hardball." that's president obama today in ohio answering whether he had any regrets about his mosque comments, but how is this playing out for democrats and republicans facing elections? pat buchanan is an msnbc analyst, eugene robinson from "the washington post" and and lis. guys, i want you to consider this report from the "new york daily news" today, the news reported rahm emanuel has spent
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three days on the phone doing damage control with angry democrats and urging them not to go public against the president. democratic sources said. obama went ahead with the ramadan dinner remarks even though his top political advisers had not reached consensus on what he should do. emmanuel was one of the skeptics. now, pat since that has come out, the white house pushed back and said no, we didn't have skeptics. rahm was not a skeptic. this is a typical wobbly white house reaction where they're trying to find out exactly where they should be on this and maybe trying to indicate that we're skeptics was helpful and maybe it wasn't. has the white house figured out how to handle it on their own at this point? >> this story doesn't really help at all, and really, when i looked at it, and i may be wrong, i said the last line rahm emanuel was one of the skeptics,
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that looked to me like the chief of staff was signaling this was not my idea, folks. he did it. he did it. but look, the president's really got himself into it. he stepped into it full force and stepped back the next day. doing so, the thing metasized. lawrence it, became a national issue and now an international issue. hamas has weighed in. they're going to fight it out. i think patterson's approach is the right approach for democrats and frankly, for the country. they've got a constitutional legal right to do this, but at the same time, putting a mosque two blocks from where americans were killed 3,000 of them by islamic terrorists not a good idea. i think they ought to get it resolved and i think the president should push to. >> gene, the story is an out of control story politically. has the white house mismanaged their own handling of their parliamentarian of this as a
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political story? because it is, among other things, a political story. >> if you look at it as a political story, i think clearly the white house has mismanage it had, i think. if the president was going to come out on the friday with what sounded like a full-throated endorsement of the mosque plan, then that was the right thing 0 do, but then to kind of seem to take it back on saturday, clearly there was mismanagement there. lawrence, if you look at it as a geopolitical story, i come to a different conclusion. my colleague at the post michael gerson who used to write speeches in the bush white house had, an excellent column on monday in which he pointed out that the president of the united states, who's waging two wars in muslim countries, who is fighting against this poisonous narrative that terrorist recruiters use about how the united states and the west are at war against islam, not just against al qaeda but against the faith itself, a president who's
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in that position might well have had to jump in and had to say something. in strategic terms, not necessarily in tactical terms, and take the political hit for a greater goal. >> guys, let's hold it there. we're going to take a break. we'll be back with pat buchanan and eugene robinson. you're watching "hardball" only on msnbc. [ male announcer ] prilosec otc traveled to fairbanks, alaska. home of one of the coldest, longest nights on the planet. and asked frequent heartburn sufferers, like carl,
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nazis don't have the right to put up a sign next to the holocaust museum in washington. we would never accept is the japanese putting up a site next to pearl harbor. there's no reason for us to accept a mosque next to the world trade center. >> we're backing with pat buchanan and the "washington post" eugene robinson. pat, is newt gingrich really that stupid? >> well, i think whenever you introduce the nazis and the holocaust and the rest of it, i think the argument is over. it's deteriorating. people are yelling what you said. i think he made a terrible mistake there. in my view, i think newt was acting opportunistically in order to be the headline or the lead pony in opposition to this mosque. i oppose the mosque. i think, quite frankly, sarah palin hit it dead right there's a legal and constitutional right to do it, but this is sort of a stab to an awful lot of people so don't do it. i think she hit it right and i
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think newt was over the top. >> eugene, newt is doing this at a time when "esquire" magazine has on newstands an article with a lot of ugliness in newt's marital history that won't play well with republican voters in iowa. do you think his bombastic hey, look at this has anything to do with trying to make sure people don't look at the "esquire" article? >> it might well. i think in the end people are going to look at that article. iny newt gingrich, there's a lot he can do and still can do in american political life. as a presidential candidate, a serious presidential candidate, i think he's got way too much baggage and just added to it with these remarks. >> lawrence, i had the same thought that you just express this had morning when i saw that esquire article. how do youtom that? you top that by saying nazis are at the holocaust museum. >> when you start waking up with the same thoughts i do, i'm going to get worr